Alongside the Commonwealth president, attendees included International Olympic Committee president, Jacques Rogge. He was quoted as saying "I think India has set a good foundation stone for the Olympics bid and a successful Commonwealth Games can help India mount a serious bid for the Olympics."[4]

The opening ceremony featured aspects of India's heritage and culture in seven segments. It featured an aerostat costing U$8 million,[5] measuring 40×80x12 meters and manufactured in Oswestry, England.[6] The original plan was to have drummers on the aerostat, but the plan was cancelled.[6]

The countdown for the opening of commonwealth games start as the drums were being played, and fireworks exploded from the roof of the stadium. Various Drummers from Kerala, Manipur, Karnataka, Orissa, Punjab and Meghalaya played a symphony that aimed to be "uniquely Indian in character, yet global in appeal".

Hariharan led this segment, which created an amalgamation of Hindustani classical, Carnatic and folk music. The song was composed by A. R. Rahman, who also composed the official theme song of the games, and was performed by various artists along with Hariharan. Children from various Delhi schools participated in a simultaneous performance forming hands of an Indian woman in a pose of Namaste - a popular Indian salutation. Later, they separated and rearranged themselves in another formation representing the Indian flag colors of saffron, white and green while another group of children entered the stadium and covered the flag formations with a large white cloth. In a widely appreciated act, the children then made a mehndi - a traditional Indian art - on this large white piece of cloth in under 30 seconds on the spot.

This segment will give a glimpse of the lives of the masses in India, as seen through a train window. Art director Omung Kumar created a 600-ft train of bamboo sticks for this. It portrayed a common man's life and every thing in it, such as the bangle shops, politicians campaigning, Bollywood, the cycle shop etc.

Australia entered first as the host of the last games, and India entered last as the host. Excluding these two nations, the flag bearers entered by alphabetical order of their nations; Anguilla was the first (after Australia) and Zambia was the last (before India). Each flag bearer was preceded by a woman in traditional Indian dress, each reflecting a different part of the country, carrying a placard with the country's name.

Pakistan's flag bearer was scheduled to be weightlifter Shujha-ud-din Malik. However, chef de mission Muhammad Ali Shah announced that he would carry the flag and took it from the designated flag-bearer.[35]

In the opening ceremony the head of organizing committee faced embarrassment, when he was booed by the spectators at the start of his welcome speech to 60,000 spectators in the opening ceremony. The atmosphere otherwise for the teams and officials was fine, especially when they offered warm applause to the neighbouring Pakistan squad, with whom it has tense relationships. Sri Lanka also got a loud applause. The head finished his speech in five minutes and then handed over to Michael Fennell, the Chief of the Commonwealth Games Federation.[36]